Villa of the Dragon Worshippers
Kaylee stood there with her arms crossed, leaning jauntily as she watched what Lije was doing. The kid was fiddling with the dragon cultists' vehicle terminal using those tiny hands of hers, while the four-legged robot Bini wandered around nearby.
"...You really think that kid's got something?"
She eyed Lije suspiciously, half-buried amid a mess of machinery and wires. Roque, sipping his bottled beer on the side, pondered how to explain it before opting for a curt reply.
"You'll see."
His clipped answer drew Kaylee's skeptical gaze toward him.
"You know those terminal black boxes don't open easily, right? One wrong move and the data's gone."
"Yeah."
"And Lije has no net socket or implants. I checked—she's clean."
"Neither do I."
"You and her are the same? You're an Aura Master, for starters."
Roque just chugged his beer without a word. Watching him, Kaylee pulled off her special goggles and rubbed her eyes. She let out a small sigh, then looked up again.
"...Thanks, anyway."
Roque paused mid-sip, one eyebrow arched as if wondering what that came from out of nowhere.
"For coming to rescue me back there. Couldn't thank you properly then. I'll make it up to you later."
"Don't sweat it. Just didn't want that kid's name slipping from your lips."
Kaylee smirked faintly at his dry response, her sky-blue eyes curving softly.
"Is that so? Guess that makes the three of us a team by fate or whatever. What do they call it—community of destiny?"
"...Something like that."
"Anyway."
As she watched Lije's mechanical teardown with lingering unease, a bright smile bloomed on her face. Roque noted the shift, thinking she was even more unpredictable than he'd figured.
Then Lije threw her hands up triumphantly.
"All done."
Roque and Kaylee hurried over. Amid the jumble of circuit boards and wires sat a small screen device. The text floating on it was simple.
[May 19, 2049]
[May 20, 2049]
[May 21, 2049]
...
"Dates?"
Kaylee slipped her goggles back on and reached for the screen, her fingers skimming the info.
"...Vehicle movement logs by date. Nothing else?"
Lije shook her head vigorously. Roque ruffled her hair.
"It was just the storage on the vehicle terminal anyway. This is plenty. Good job."
At the praise, Lije looked up at him with wide round eyes, a faint smile tugging at her lips.
Kaylee, scanning the logs, spoke up.
"Hmm. Yeah, this should do it. One spot repeats across most entries."
"Where?"
Her electronic eyes gleamed as if confirming the address onscreen.
"...Coastal rental villa. Midnight if we head there now."
"Sounds good."
She glanced up at Roque and grinned.
"Yeah. This kinda thing's best at night."
The rental villa boasted a sprawling garden and pool—fake ones, mostly, but still the sort of spot Midland's rare middle class might rent for a party.
Kaylee's black special goggles swept over it.
"No guards. Maybe they pulled out after realizing everyone outside got taken."
"Nah. Signs of life inside."
She switched her goggles to transparent mode and turned to him.
"You sense that without detectors?"
"If you've trained enough."
"...Aura Master level, huh."
Roque's simple answer earned a slow headshake from Kaylee.
Huddled in a corner of the garden, they scouted the interior. Roque was in his usual coat; Kaylee wore a tactical vest stuffed with mags and grenades, armed to the teeth with rifle and shotgun.
Her electronic eyes and goggles scanned, but the dark villa stayed eerily quiet.
Then Roque stood smoothly. Kaylee, checking her rifle, stared blankly.
"...What're you doing?"
"Going in."
He strode toward the villa without hesitation. Kaylee let out a dry chuckle at his bold back.
"Straight through the front...? Ballsy."
She slung her rifle over her back, grabbed the shotgun from her shoulder, racked it with a click, and hurried after him. Her goggles darkened again.
No one stopped them as they crossed the garden. No security cams or alarms pinged on her goggles—looked like they'd been removed.
"This feels off. Usually means a trap."
"Then the hunters are waiting too."
Who'd end up as prey or predator in the trap was anyone's guess—like a beast lunging from a pit. Kaylee chuckled inwardly; Roque was tiger material. With wings, even.
"You're growing on me."
Instead of replying, Roque opened the villa door. Unlocked, it swung wide into welcoming darkness. The vast living room was empty of furniture.
And in the center stood someone.
"Welcome—"
BOOM—Kaylee's shotgun roared, sending the greeter flying backward, tumbling across the floor with choking gasps.
Roque glanced at her. She kept the shotgun trained on the fallen figure and asked curtly,
"Why?"
"...Never mind."
Roque approached the writhing man without further comment. Gasping for air, the figure raised a trembling hand upon seeing him—like begging to be held before death.
In the dim light, Roque recognized the face: a smooth-featured elf, coughing up blood-flecked sputum.
Kaylee muttered,
"Don't tell me he's the villa caretaker or some shit?"
It was the kind of thing you'd think before shooting. But Roque spotted the ring on the elf's raised finger and knew she hadn't gone too far wrong.
Then the dying elf cried out.
"...Dragon!"
A flash erupted from the ring. The unleashed power blasted the living room apart. Debris and dust poured into the garden.
Roque and Kaylee were caught in it. He spun gracefully through the air, landing cleanly on the garden lawn. Kaylee sailed straight into the pool with a splash.
It could've been dangerous if she'd blacked out, but Roque ignored her, glaring at the villa. Amid crumbling walls and rising dust, two shadows emerged.
"Gonna be trouble. Guy with the relic goes out like that?"
"Told you from the start I hated that bastard's plan. Talking to guys who made it here?"
"Then you should've said so then. Too late now."
The pair stepping from the smoke: a hulking orc and a stocky dwarf.
Both dressed distinctively. The orc wore only pants, upper body like an ancient gladiator with shoulder guards and spiked chain mail. The dwarf sported a navy pinstripe suit, leaning on a cane sized for him.
The orc held a severed arm—long, slender fingers with a thick ring. The elf's arm from before.
The orc waved it at Roque, who'd landed at a distance.
"Quick on the draw. Sliced this arm in that split second? But too slow for the relic's activation."
Roque rose slowly without answering. The orc's eyes twitched at the deliberate motion.
"...You're not the merc Kaylee."
Then Kaylee surfaced from the pool, silver-gray hair dripping as she fumed. The orc and dwarf leered with sleazy grins.
"That must be Kaylee."
"No heads-up about a babe like that."
"Doesn't change anything."
The orc slipped the ring onto his own finger from the elf's hand. Kaylee, slicking back her wet hair and snarling, racked her shotgun.
"Who the fuck are you clowns?"
"Heh, you walk right in and ask that?"
The orc sneered, uncoiling the heavy chains around his torso with a rattle. His eyes fixed on Kaylee.
"Curious? I'll tell ya!"
But the chain hurtled not at her—at Roque. As the spiked weight flew, the dwarf gripped his cane and leaped at Kaylee; she swung her shotgun toward him.
Shotgun blasts thundered repeatedly. Dozens of buckshot that'd shred thin steel hurtled at the airborne dwarf. No room or time to dodge.
His response was simple: thrust his ringed left fist forward. A translucent red barrier shimmered into existence ahead.
The pellets hit it, froze midair as if robbed of momentum, then pattered harmlessly to the ground.
"Kekekeke!"
Landing before Kaylee, the dwarf cackled like a wicked goblin sprite and gripped the cane's head with his right hand. Pulling it revealed a slender stiletto blade.
Shing—Kaylee's shotgun sheared in half. She dropped it without hesitation, diving aside. The dwarf nearly slid into the pool from momentum but stabbed the blade into the ground to halt.
Kaylee rolled up, rifle trained on him. He activated the red barrier again.
"..."
No gunshot. Kaylee hadn't pulled the trigger; she stared past the dwarf—at Roque.
The dwarf smirked, deeming it a clumsy feint. Her rifle couldn't pierce the shield anyway. He turned—and his sneer vanished.
"Grr..."
The orc strained, veins bulging on his face. His massive arms swelled further, yanking the chain taut. But it wouldn't budge, like hooked on an oil tanker.
At the chain's end: Roque. More precisely, the spiked weight hovered frozen in the air before him. The orc had been pulling futilely.
"What the—?!"
Flustered by his weapon's nullification, the orc kept hauling. Roque watched calmly, then swept back his coat and extended his right hand. The wooden-hilted handle flew from his belt to his palm.
A gray flash erupted from it.
"You—! Gray Aura Blade!"
The orc yelped in shock, forgetting his pull. In the next instant, Roque's left hand seized the air and yanked.
"Urk!"
The chain whipped over Roque's head, dragging the clinging orc along. The orc's eyes widened at the approaching figure. Light flashed; pain seared his left shoulder as he tumbled across the ground.
"Gaaah..."
Roque turned. The orc writhed amid scattered chains where he'd fallen behind him.
"Weren't you gonna tell me who you are?"
The struggling orc suddenly thrust up his remaining right hand. The dead elf's ring flashed.
"Dragon!"
Raw energy surged again—this time aimed squarely at Roque, unlike the elf's wild blast.
Roque sensed the invisible force wave, raising his Aura Blade. Three pulses in, he felt it: the vortex of fierce energy from the ring, clashing with the world's rejection. Gray light flickered in his black eyes' center.
His right hand followed the gaze's path.
Air exploded with a boom; the garden upturned. Grass, dirt, weeds churned. Yet a long triangular swath from Roque backward remained pristine. He hadn't moved an inch.
"H-how... the dragon's... spell..."
The orc, right arm raised high, stammered dumbly at the sight. Roque replied,
"Kept at it till it worked."
"...Huh?"
His Aura Blade whipped across the orc's right hand. In a fleeting moment, the ring—losing its second master—dropped with the wrist. The orc's screams echoed over the wrecked garden.